Dutch police arrest two terror suspects on US flight - Hindustan Times

Dutch police arrest two terror suspects on US flight - Hindustan Times

CWG venues won't be ready even if PM mops floor: Modi - Hindustan Times

CWG venues won't be ready even if PM mops floor: Modi - Hindustan Times

CWG venues won't be ready even if PM mops floor: Modi

Press Trust Of India

Ahmedabad, August 31, 2010First Published: 14:16 IST(31/8/2010)

Last Updated: 15:58 IST(31/8/2010)

Taking a dig at the Centre for tardy pace of construction of venues for Common Wealth Games (CWG), Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said even if Prime Minister wipes the floor, venues would not be ready for the games. "I don't know what is happening in the Commonwealth Games.

Even if the PM (Manmohan Singh) starts wiping the floor, the venues won't be ready for the game," Modi said at a function here.

CWG people had four years to get the venues ready, but they are still struggling. They should have given it to Ahmedabad (Municipal Corporation), which would have built those stadiums in time," Modi said.

Alleging misuse of CBI by Congress after arrest of his close aide Amit Shah in Soharabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, Modi said,"Delhi Sultanate thinks that CBI can save them every time. But even CBI cannot save them from CWG debacle," Modi also warned the union government to stop threatening Gujarat in the name of CBI.

Modi said development of Gujarat was like service to the nation for him. "I do not need to do something separately. To ensure that no person in Gujarat falls sick and to ensure that people of the state get proper employment is my way of service to the nation," the CM said.

Modi also challenged the Union government calling it as 'Delhi Sultanate' and asked it to compete on development front.

"Even development is hurting some people. I have challenged this Delhi Sultanate, come and let us compete on development front, but they are not ready," he said. "You (Union government) have the entire country and ours is a small state. It is my challenge that Gujarat would be ahead of the Delhi sultanate despite this," Modi said.

Chicago Islamic group sues Illinois State Police - chicagotribune.com

Chicago Islamic group sues Illinois State Police - chicagotribune.com

Chicago Islamic group sues Illinois State Police

Lawsuit accuses agency of discriminating against imam based on race, religion, national origin

By Manya A. Brachear, Tribune reporter

7:55 p.m. CDT, August 30, 2010

The Chicago chapter of a national Islamic civil rights group filed a federal discrimination lawsuit Monday against Illinois State Police on behalf of a local Muslim cleric whose appointment as chaplain was revoked last month.

After making the historic first appointment of an imam to serve as police chaplain in Illinois, the state police rescinded the offer to Sheikh Kifah Mustapha, associate director of the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, when questions arose about his connection to a charity with ties to the militant Palestinian group Hamas.

The lawsuit filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Chicago chapter alleges discrimination based on race, religion and national origin. The suit also says Mustapha was denied his First Amendment right to freedom of association, which bars the government from imposing guilt by association. It calls for Mustapha's immediate reinstatement.

"From what we can gather, the reasons given for not accepting Imam Kifah as a chaplain didn't make any sense," said Kevin Vodak, staff attorney for CAIR-Chicago. "There was no specific reason given other than that he failed the background check. … All of the other chaplains that went through the same program were accepted."

Shortly after Mustapha's appointment, Steve Emerson, executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, criticized Illinois law enforcement, calling Mustapha one of more than 300 "unindicted co-conspirators" in the federal government's case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Dallas-based group that was once the nation's largest Muslim charity.

"He is on record raising money for terrorists," Emerson said. "We have a significant problem of radicalization developing in America. It makes no sense to place someone with a documented record of jihad support in a consultative position."

Mustapha, who was never charged with a crime, solicited donations on behalf of the Holy Land Foundation. His lawyer said he believed the money went to support American Muslim causes in the U.S.

"As we learned in the McCarthy era, just being part of being an organization doesn't mean you're engaged in wrongdoing whatsoever," Vodak said. "He was truly engaged in an effort that was support for the Muslim community."

Master Sgt. Isaiah D. Vega, a spokesman for the state police, said the agency has no intention of reinstating Mustapha. In an earlier statement, Vega said the department would continue to contact community groups in hopes of having someone Muslim whom officers can rely on for spiritual support.

Ossama Jammal, vice president of the Mosque Foundation, said that as long as the state police call for nominations, the Muslim community will submit Mustapha's name.

"When you want someone to serve with police in the line of duty … you want the best," Jammal said. "When they ask us to recommend, we have to give them the best we've got. He is our candidate. He will be nominated again and again and again."

The men behind the mosque - NYPOST.com

The men behind the mosque - NYPOST.com

The men behind the mosque

Last Updated: 1:46 AM, August 31, 2010

Posted: August 31, 2010

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/the_men_behind_the_mosque_8Zt0qM9oJAg2c2LYn8ZlTN#ixzz0yB5l1dIl

No wonder the guys who want to build that Islamic center near Ground Zero are quiet as mosque mice about financing: Turns out, as The Post first reported, their own financial records are, well, a bit short of blue chip.

Indeed, Sharif El-Gamal, who owns the site -- as The Post's Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein reported Sunday -- owes nearly a quarter of a million dollars to the city in back payments.

His firm, 45 Park Place Partners, simply skipped its property-tax bills in January and July, according to the Finance Department. Gamal's folks say he delayed payments while seeking a lower tax rate, The New York Times reported.

AP

Sharif el-Gamal

Gamal, 37, also reportedly pleaded guilty to at least six misdemeanors while in his teens and 20s. Charges included disorderly conduct, drunk driving and attempted shoplifting.

And he was arrested once for punching a man who owed his brother money and another time for soliciting a prostitute.

Meanwhile, tenants in New Jersey buildings owned by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who's leading the mosque project, describe him as a veritable slumlord.

"All he likes is money," one tenant, Vilma Then, says. "Nothing [in her building] ever gets fixed."

Jamie Barillas, another tenant, agrees, adding that tenants are forced to call their city officials to seek action. Barillas complains, for example, that bedbugs plague her building and that managers claim they don't have money for an exterminator.

All of which sheds new light on the question of how Gamal and Rauf will get the $100 million said to be needed for the mosque project.

Rauf has talked out of both sides of his mouth about that. He's told US audiences that the cash will come from US Muslims but suggested to an Arabic newspaper that he'll get funding from Arab countries.

That in itself is troubling.

Is he thinking of, say, Saudi Arabia? Funds from that country -- as reports, like one in 2005 by Freedom House, have shown -- have already gone to finance mosques that spread the violent Wahhabist strain of Islam.

What kind of mosque exactly do Rauf, Gamal & Co. have in mind?

But the reports about their financial records raise even more questions.

As we've said repeatedly, they have a right to build an Islamic center hard by Ground Zero -- inappropriate as many find that to be. But they have to be able to pay for it. With clean money.

And until they say -- at the least -- how they'll do that, there's little cause to back their project.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/the_men_behind_the_mosque_8Zt0qM9oJAg2c2LYn8ZlTN#ixzz0yB6gM8Cc

The Hindu : Business / Economy : Information on money stashed away in Swiss banks now easier

The Hindu : Business / Economy : Information on money stashed away in Swiss banks now easier

NEW DELHI, August 30, 2010

Information on money stashed away in Swiss banks now easier

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee with Micheline Calmy-Rey, Federal Councillor, Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland exchanging documents after signing a protocol amending the existing Double Taxation Avoidance agreement in New Delhi on Monday. Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

India, Switzerland sign protocol to amended Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement

India and Switzerland on Monday signed a protocol to the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement that would enable the government get information about some of the wealth illegally stashed away in Swiss banks.

“The protocol will be the basis or the institutional framework for getting information from Switzerland in cases where there are instances of evasion,” Joint Secretary in the Ministry for External Affairs Banashree Bose Harrison told newspersons hours before the revised pact was inked by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey.

Provisions

“The revised Double Taxation Agreement contains provisions on the exchange of information in accordance with the OECD standards, which were negotiated in line with the parameters decided by the (Swiss) Federal Council,” said a statement from the Swiss Federal Department of Finance.

It became mandatory for Switzerland to open up its confidentiality-driven banking system after adopting the OECD's (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) standards on transparency last year. Ms. Calmy-Rey described the changes as very important for both countries since these enable India to extend the lowest withholding tax rate on dividends, interest, royalties and payments for technical services.

She pointed out that the amendments were not unique to India and were extended to other countries such as the United States.

Need for regular debate

Ms. Calmy-Rey discussed the need for regular political discussions at all levels during her delegation-level talks with External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna. Both sides agreed upon the need for a Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement, for which talks resumed this month.

Both countries also decided to step up multilateral cooperation beginning with a study of glaciers during the Swiss Foreign Minister's meeting with Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.

Ms. Calmy-Rey visited the country in 2007, when she was President.

Keywords: black money, money laundering, Swiss banks, Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement

The Hindu : News / National : Charges levelled by Johri against CBI should be investigated: BJP

The Hindu : News / National : Charges levelled by Johri against CBI should be investigated: BJP

NEW DELHI, August 30, 2010

Charges levelled by Johri against CBI should be investigated: BJP

PTI

The BJP on Monday said the charges levelled by senior IPS officer Geetha Johri against the CBI in the Sohrabuddin encounter case should be investigated and demanded a debate on the issue in the Rajya Sabha.

“The Supreme Court had directed the CBI to investigate the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case as the police of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan were involved....

“IPS officer Geetha Johri had said during investigations that the role of then Hyderabad Police Commissioner Balvinder Singh should be investigated. Now Singh has been made the monitoring authority,” BJP Chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

He alleged that since Congress was in power in Andhra Pradesh, the investigations there in the role of the police in the Sohrabuddin encounter case were going slow.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley had raised the issue of “blatant misuse of CBI” in the Upper House. BJP forced adjournment of the Upper House on the issue and demanded a debate on it.

“Johri has said that CBI was pressurising her. This is a gross, blatant misuse of CBI. We want a debate in Rajya Sabha on the issue,” Mr. Prasad said.

He further alleged that government had made three categories under which it misuses CBI.

“Government uses CBI to bail out those close to it.

Implicate those who are opposed to the government and keep the CBI sword hanging over the likes of Lalu Prasad, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati who have cases against them,” Mr. Prasad said.

He listed Ottavio Quottrochi (Bofors Case), Satish Sharma (petrol pump scam), Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler (1984 riots) as those who had CBI cases but were “bailed out” by the government.

Keywords: Geetha Johri, CBI, investigation, Amit Shah

Akbar & Hindu Temples Destroyed

source: http://www.chowk.com/interacts/13945/1/0/a
Akbar & Hindu Temples Destroyed

Was Akbar raised as Shia originallly? I am asking this question because Humayun had accepted to become Shia as a condition for accepting the help of Iranians and was probably Shia when Akbar was born. If so, did he become Sunni while under the custodianship of Bairam Khan?

Contrary to popular belief Akbar, continued the policy of Babur and Humayun in the destruction of Hindu temples. It is recorded by Bayazid Biyat, personal attendant of Humayun, that Akbar gave two villages for the upkeep of a mosque and a Madrasa which was setup by destroying a Hindu temple [18]. Akbar's army was responsible for demolition of rich Hindu temples which had gold idols in the Doab region between Ganga and Yamuna [18]. Historian Abd al-Qadir Badauni records that during Akbar's reign at Nagarkot, near Kangra, 200 cows were slaughtered, numerous Hindus killed and a temple was demolished [18].

On the 1st Rajab 990 [AD 1582] Akbar's forces encamped by a field of maize near Nagarkot. The fortress (hissãr) of Bhîm, which has an idol temple of Mahãmãî, and in which none but her servants dwelt, was taken by the valour of the assailants at the first assault. A party of Rajpûts, who had resolved to die, fought most desperately till they were all cut down. A number of Brãhmans who for many years had served the temple, never gave one thought to flight, and were killed. Nearly 200 black cows belonging to Hindûs had, during the struggle, crowded together for shelter in the temple. Some savage Turks, while the arrows and bullets were falling like rain, killed those cows. They then took off their boots and filled them with the blood and cast it upon the roof and walls of the temple [19].

Akbar waged a holy war (Jihad) against Rana Pratap. Abd al-Qadir Badauni who was then one of Akbar's court chaplains or imams, states that he sought an interview with the emperor when the royal troops were marching against Rana Pratap in 1576, begging leave of absence for "the privilege of joining the campaign to soak his Islamic beard in Hindu infidel blood". Akbar was so pleased at the expression of allegiance to his person and to the Islamic idea of Jihad that he bestowed a handful of gold coins on Badaoni as a token of his pleasure.[20]

At first the Emperor said: “Why he has just been appointed one of the Court-Imáms, how can he go?�? Naqíb Khán represented that I had a very strong desire to take part in a holy war. So the Emperor sent for me, and asked me: “Are you in earnest?�? I answered: “Yes.�? Then he said, “For what reason?�? I humbly replied: “I have the presumption to desire to dye these black mustachios and beard in infidel blood through loyalty to your Majesty's person:— .....And when I put out my hand towards the couch in order to kiss his foot, he withdrew it; but, just as I was going out of the audience chamber, he called me back, and filling both his hands he presented me with a sum of 56 ashrafí, and bid me farewell.

During the siege of Chittor, 8000 rajputs had remained inside the fort to defend various temples after the cavalry sallied out to meet Akbar's army in the plain below. These 8000 died fighting to the last man in defence of Hindu temples when Akbar's army stormed the fort and attacked the temples. In addition their were 30,000 Hindu peasants inside the fort who were unarmed and massacred in cold blood by Akbar's forces [21]. Historians have succesfully argued that victorious Islamic armies usually gave a choice of conversion to the defeated and on refusal to convert such massacres occured.

The shrine of Moinuddin Chisti in Ajmer was presented brass candlesticks by Akbar which were taken after the destruction of Kalika temple by Akbar during the third siege of Chittor [22]

References

1. bookrags.com - Encyclopedia of World Biography article 

2. the-south-asian.com - Short Biography 

3. bookrags.com - Encyclopedia of World Biography article 

4. the-south-asian.com - Short Biography 

5. Women of the Mughal Dynasty - Deborah Hutton - 2002 - Skidmore College. 

6. History of India The Nine Gems of Akbar - Neria Harish Hebbar, MD - Saturday, April 5 2003 

7. The Second Battle of Panipat - Robert W. Martin - about.com. 

8. a b c Abul Fazl - Akbarnama Volume II 

9. The life and times of Humayun, by Ishwari Prasad (1955, rev. 1970)[1] 

10.Akbar - The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2006 

11.a b Irfan Habib (1992), "Akbar and Technology", Social Scientist 20 (9-10), pp. 3-15 [3-4]. 

12.Abul Fazl - Akbarnama Volume III 

13.S.K. Banjerji: "Humayun Badshah". 

14.Abul Fazl - Akbarnama Volume I 

15.http://punjabgovt.nic.in/government/gurdas1.GIF 

16.a b Jahangir, Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri (Memoirs), 17th century, as translated by Alexander Rogers, 1863. 

17.M. Miles, SIGN, GESTURE & DEAFNESS IN SOUTH ASIAN & SOUTH-WEST ASIAN HISTORIES: a bibliography with annotation and excerpts from India; also from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma/Myanmar, Iraq, Nepal, Pakistan, Persia/Iran, & Sri Lanka, c1200-1750 

18.a b c Harbans, Mukhia : The Mughals of India, Pub: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., ISBN: 9780631185550, Page 23 

19.H.M. Elliot and J.Dowson, History of India As Told by Own Historians, Volume V, Publisher: Ams Pr Inc (June 1977), p. 358 

20.Abd al-Qadir Badauni, Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh, vol. II, p. 383 

21.Dr. Satish Chandra: Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals, Pub: Har Anand Publications, ISBN: 8124105227, Page 107 

22.C.C.Watson (I.C.S): Rajputana District Gazetteers, Pub: 1904 Scottish Mission Industries Co., Ltd., Page 17 

Saffron Terrorism: PM should apologies to people, says Modi

Saffron Terrorism: PM should apologies to people, says Modi

Saffron Terrorism: PM should apologies to people, says Modi

Agencies

Tags : Narendra Modi, Saffron Terrorism, Manmohan Singh, apology, P Chidambaram

Posted: Sun Aug 29 2010, 22:41 hrs

Ahmedabad:

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today again sought an apology from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for use of the term 'Saffron Terrorism' by the Home Minister.

"The post of the Prime Minister has been devalued and he has become helpless as someone else is in control of the administration," Modi said at a public function after inaugurating a slew of civic project in the city.

Criticising Union Home Minister P Chidambaram for using the term 'saffron terrorism' Modi said, "it is the height of misfortune that the Union Minister has demeaned the chair which was once held by the Iron man of India, Sardar Patel."

"Is not there a saffron flag on a temple? Would you call it a centre of terrorist activity? Sawmi Vivekanand, Dayanand Saraswati, Shankracharya, Swami Ramdas and others who have sacrificed for the country wore saffron clothes. Are you calling them terrorist?" Modi asked.

"Every Congressmen will have to answer this. And the Prime Minister has to apologies to the people of the country for this," the chief minister added.

Modi said saffron colour is an integral part of Indian tradition. "By conning the term 'saffron terrorism', the Home minister has caused insult to the Indian heritage," he added.

Modi also said that even PM has acknowledged the fact that Gujarat has been able to curb communal violence.

Attacking the Congress on the alleged misuse of CBI against him, Modi said one cannot make place in people's heart through CBI.

Modi also dared the Congress-led UPA government to compete with Gujarat on the development front.

"The Union government had the country, entire administration and crores of rupees at its disposal. I dare the Union government that despite of all this, Gujarat will be far ahead if there was a competition," Modi said.

He said those bent on demeaning Gujarat will be taught lesson by the people themselves.

The Chief Minister, today dedicated number of project to the people which included a recreation centre, water pumping and distribution station, a sports and commercial complex, a Sardar Patel Heritage Hall and Zonal office of New western zone of the city to name a few.

The Chief Minister speaking at a function in Vadodara yesterday also had demanded an apology from the Prime Minister on the 'saffron terrorism' issue.

Johri: CBI pressure to finger political leaders

Johri: CBI pressure to finger political leaders

Prabhakar Rao Voruganti Express News Service

First Published : 29 Aug 2010 03:15:18 AM ISTLast Updated : 29 Aug 2010 11:27:02 AM IST

source: http://expressbuzz.com/nation/johri-cbi-pressure-to-finger-political-leaders/202091.html

NEW DELHI: Geetha Johri, IPS, Commissioner of Police, Rajkot, Gujarat, has filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court alleging that the CBI has been exerting pressure on her to implicate political leaders in Gujarat, including former Minister of State for Home Amit Shah, in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case in 2005 in Ahmedabad.

She also sought expunction of certain remarks made against her by the apex court in its judgment.

She pointed out that CBI Special Director Balwinder Singh was the City Police Commissioner of Hyderabad in 2007 from whom she had sought information about the seven Andhra Pradesh police officers who accompanied Sohrabuddin to Ahmedabad. At that time he expressed his ignorance.

Now, the same officer was investigating the case of Sohrabuddin fake encounter.

He should be removed as a supervising officer and instead made a witness in the case, Johri stated.

The third person accompanying Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi was Nayeemuddin, alias Kalimuddin, and not Tulsiram Prajapathi, as stated earlier.

In fact, Nayeemuddin was an accused in the Haren Pandya murder case (former Gujarat Minister of State for Home) and was absconding, she said.

She alleged that the Andhra Pradesh police was protecting Kalimuddin because he functions as a police informer for them and also for the CBI.

The senior IPS Officer alleged that the CBI asked her to depose before it in a particular manner and also threatened her personal assistant.

She challenged dismissal of her review petition wherein she had sought expunction of remarks made against her. These remarks were made without giving notice to her and without affording an opportunity to her to narrate her side of the story, she added.

Jethmalani for brining back money stashed in Swiss accounts

Jethmalani for brining back money stashed in Swiss accounts

Hyderabad, Aug 28 (PTI)

source: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/92203/jethmalani-brining-back-money-stashed.html

Eminent lawyer and Rajya Sabha member Ram Jethmalani has said people of Telangana would not be required to fight for a separate state if the billions of dollars of black money stashed in Swiss bank accounts were retrieved and brought back to India.

"A staggering $1500 billion of Indian money has been stashed away in Swiss banks. If it is retrieved, each Indian family will get Rs 2.5 lakh each. India will have a debt-free budget for 30 years and all our external debt will be wiped out. When so much money comes back, nobody will bother about Telangana," Jethmalani told a seminar organized by the Telangana Advocates Joint Action Committee here on Saturday.

The former Union Law Minister, who has been fighting a case in the Supreme Court over the Swiss bank accounts, dubbed the Congress as a 'scams party' and said it was no longer the 'Sonia party' or the 'Manmohan party.' "Those who are ruling now are likely to end up in jail once the information related to Swiss accounts come out. We are being ruled by criminals and they have to be brought to book," he added.

He alleged that India was not ready to obtain information about the Indian money stashed in Swiss banks though the Switzerland government was forthcoming to give all information. "Germany, the US and many continental countries have got the information from Swiss banks but not India," he pointed out.

Jethmalani said people of Telangana were 'victims of terrible injustice' and said the 'divorce' being sought by people of the region was 'rightly deserved.' "You sought a divorce and you are entitled to it. Your cause is going to be a success very soon," he added. He said the BJP was whole-heartedly behind the cause of Telangana and promised to fight for it "till my last drop blood and last ounce of energy."

Noted academician Hara Gopal, Telangana Advocates JAC chairman M Rajendra Reddy and others also spoke on the occasion.

Illegal Immigration and Passage of IMDT Act

Illegal Immigration and Passage of IMDT Act

It is a standard practice all over the world that the burden of proving one's status as a bonafide citizen of a country falls on the accused. It is so for India as well under Foreigners Act, 1946.Political expediency forced the Government to make an exception for Assam. In one of the most short-sighted and anti-national moves, India passed the Illegal Migrants - Determination by Tribunals (IMDT) Act of 1984 for Assam. It shifted the onus of proving the illegal status of a suspected immigrant on to the accuser, which was a tall and virtually impossible order. Detection and deportation of illegal immigrants became impossible.

Whenever demands were raised for repealing the Act, the Congress, the Left Front and the United Minorities Front resisted strongly. Illegal immigrants had become the most loyal vote bank of the Congress. Worse, every protest against the Act was dubbed as 'anti-minority' , thereby imparting communal colour to an issue of national security. The government's 'pardon' of all Bangladeshis who had come in before 1985 was another unconstitutional act that aggravated the problem.

The Act was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on July 13, 2005, more than 20 years after its enactment. The Apex Court was of the view that the influx of Bangladeshi nationals into Assam posed a threat to the integrity and security of northeastern region. Unfortunately, immense damage had already been done to the demography of Assam and the local people of Assam had been reduced to minority status in certain districts. Illegal immigrants have come to have a stranglehold over electioneering to the extent that no party can hope to come to power without their support. Nearly 30 Islamic groups are thriving in the area to further their Islamist and Pan-Bangladesh agenda. It is incomprehensible that a nation's leadership can stoop so low and endanger even national security for garnering votes.

Fort Hood shootings exposed security lapses, Pentagon report says | Nation | News from F...

Fort Hood shootings exposed security lapses, Pentagon report says | Nation | News from F...

BY NANCY A. YOUSSEF AND MARK SEIBEL

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- The November 2009 shootings of more than 40 people by an Army psychiatrist at Fort Hood revealed a wide range of security lapses at U.S. military bases, including a failure to consider the possibility that a threat might come from an "insider," according to a Pentagon report released Friday.

The 23-page document makes 47 different recommendations on how to improve security in the aftermath of the attack in Texas, which left 13 people dead.

The report provides scant information, however, on how the security lapses contributed to the Fort Hood shootings. Pentagon officials continue to refuse to release the actual report of an independent panel into the shootings.

Among the recommendations:

Better screening of military personnel for signs that they may become violent. Currently, the report said, there's no requirement to screen soldiers for violent tendencies before their deployment, and post-deployment screenings rely primarily on soldiers to report their own symptoms on questionnaires. Maj. Nidal Hasan, who's accused in the Fort Hood shootings, was about to be deployed to Afghanistan when he was alleged to have opened fire on fellow soldiers.

Improved 911 emergency call systems. An independent Pentagon review after the Fort Hood shootings determined that emergency phone systems on most military bases were not as sophisticated as those in neighboring civilian communities and couldn't, for example, give dispatchers a caller's location.

Tougher screening of civilians working at U.S. military facilities and of noncitizens working on military bases overseas. The report said that background checks on U.S. citizen civilians "may be incomplete, limited in scope or not conducted at all."

Better focus on threats from military insiders. "Force protection programs and policies are not focused on internal threats," the report said. Noting that issuing credentials and checking IDs doesn't ensure against violence, the report recommended that security guards, police officers and others on bases be trained to recognize signs that visitors might be violent. "Detecting a trusted insider's intention to commit a violent act requires observation of behavioral cues/anomalies," the report said.

The report also said that the Defense Department's commitment to Joint Terrorism Task Forces with other government agencies "is inadequate" and called for the appointment of a senior Pentagon official to oversee Defense Department involvement with such task forces.

The report made just one mention of the events of Nov. 5 -- in a section urging that the Pentagon establish better communication between bases about violent incidents.

Other military installations were not aware of what was happening at Fort Hood, the report said. Most learned about the shootings through media.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/08/20/2416302/fort-hood-shootings-exposed-security.html#ixzz0xpW7rl9v

Case for electronic voting machines

Case for electronic voting machines

Suspicions about EVMs are ill-founded. First, the Indian EVM, unlike the machines used in Europe, is not programmable. Besides, a large number would have to be manipulated to impact a result, and this cannot escape detection, .

Once sealed, the EVM is tamper-proof.

The recent elections in the UK showed how much better our system of elections is compared to theirs. Thousands of voters in London, Manchester and Birmingham could not vote because there were not enough ballot papers. In India, we use the electronic voting machine (EVM) which has no such problem — it needs no ballot papers.

Paper ballots are expensive. If a hundred per cent of ballots are printed, 30-40 per cent of them will not be used at all. That is a colossal waste of money. In these days of ecological concern, it is also a matter of distress that millions of trees would have been cut needlessly.

Hence, election commissions make a value judgement; they print less than 100 per cent, but that can cause trouble — like it has in the UK. As EVMs need no paper ballots, there is no such problem. There is no wastage of paper. EVMs have one more advantage — no wasted ballots due to invalid votes, which created considerable distress when President Bush won the first time.

TAMPERING CUMBERSOME

Peculiarly enough, there have been persistent and determined efforts to discredit EVMs at home, at any rate in Andhra Pradesh. A determined group has been attacking the EVM as unreliable on the ground it does not have what is called a “paper trail”. A few weeks ago, they went to the extent of having a two-hour demonstration on a TV station to show how EVMs could be compromised.

In their demonstration, the critics stole a machine (apparently from Maharashtra) and replaced the display in such a manner that it showed results that were different from the polls cast. To a layperson, the demonstration was quite impressive but, actually, it had several faults.

One, the results are not taken from the display but from the memory inside. Hence, the results that would be printed out would not be affected at all. Two, in any general election, several lakh EVMs are used. Even if a select 10 per cent of them are manipulated, something like 70,000-80,000 machines will have to be attacked.

As the EVM is not programmable, the chip itself will have to be changed — which will leave marks of its own. It is also expensive, very much so. Three, machines are allotted at random. Unless all machines are manipulated, the manipulator is not sure whether the machines he tampers with will actually go to the desired constituency or not. Four, tens of thousands of manipulators have to be trained because the manipulation has to be done at each polling booth and after what is called a “mock poll” is completed.

What is a mock poll? Before the EVM is sealed, representatives of all candidates are invited to cast votes in any manner they decide. The results are then checked to see that they are correct. Only when they all certify that the machine is performing as desired, is the EVM sealed for use. Once sealed, the EVM is tamper-proof — provided the machine itself is not altered.

The mock poll is a very important check: It ensures the machine is working perfectly before the election starts. Hence, tampering would have to be done after the machine is sealed and in the presence of a number of competing agents of various political parties. That may still be done by changing the system in such a manner that it gets Bluetooth capability, or the ability to receive radio signals which can alter the functioning of the system. Theoretically, that is possible, but fortunately not in practice.

It is not practical for several reasons. The first problem is the expense; it will cost several hundred crores of rupees. The second one is collusion; it requires collusion from a hundreds of district officials to access and change the machines. The third is the secrecy; if one or two machines are compromised that may be kept secret, but if hundreds of thousands of them have to be altered, that is impossible. Fourth, a fear has been expressed that the government in power can issue instructions to the manufacturers to change the system. Just imagine what the consequence would be, if this instruction is leaked out, and leaked out it will be — because the manufacturing process requires hundreds of people.

INDIAN EVM's ADVANTAGES

A forceful point made by the critics is that EVMs have been banned in Germany, the Netherlands and in several other countries. What they fail to understand or notice is that the machines used there were programmable. Their working could be changed but that is not possible in the Indian machine — it is only a simple calculator.

In the good (bad) old days thousands of votes could be stuffed in half an hour and marauding parties could go from booth to booth capturing them by sheer force. With the EVMs, no more than five votes can be cast in a minute. Hence, the productivity of the booth capturers is reduced 20-30 times. No party has found it worthwhile to employ such people.

Two things protect the Indian EVMs: One, their simplicity; two their numbers. Once, I asked a former cabinet minister about the EVMs. He was categorical — they cannot be tampered. Apparently, he had tried and failed.

No machine is perfect; every machine can be bugged. That is not the issue. The real issue is whether such a change is sustainable. The number of EVMs is so large that not enough of them can be altered without detection. That is why the EVMs are safe.

Court rejects Hari Prasad's bail in EVM case

Hari Prasad, the man who proved Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) can be rigged, was sent to two-day police custody on Thursday. Hari Prasad, had applied for bail on medical grounds following his arrest earlier this week. But his bail was rejected.

Man who showed 'EVM loopholes' held

The Election Commission has termed as "patently false" the allegation that a Hyderabad- based technical coordinator, who claimed that electronic voting machines could be tampered with, was arrested at the behest of the EC for allegedly stealing an EVM. Hari Prasad, technical coordinator of VeTA (Citizens for Verifiability, Transparency and Accountability in Elections), was arrested from Hyderabad on Saturday in connection with the theft of an EMV, Mumbai Police said Monday.

women getting changed in parking lot

The Worst Woman Driver EVER

• the one to blame is the idiot that gave that stupid cow a licence

  
  

  
  

  to flip a two-tonne car driving at 10 miles per hour through a twelve foot gate requires an elite level of idiocy.

  
  

  
  

Why India needs Narendra Modi? Suhel Seth

Why India needs Narendra Modi? Suhel Seth  

Let me begin with a set of disclosures: I have perhaps written more articles against Modi and his handling of the post-Godhra scenario than most people have; I have called him a modern-day Hitler and have always said that Godhra shall remain an enduring blemish not just on him but on India’s political class. I still believe that what happened in Gujarat during the Godhra riots is something we as a nation will pay a heavy price for. 

But the fact is that time has moved on. As has Narendra Modi. He is not the only politician in India who has been accused of communalism. 

It is strange that the whole country venerates the Congress Party as the secular messiah but it was that party that presided over the riots in 1984 in which over 3,500 Sikhs died: thrice the number killed in Gujarat.  

The fact of the matter is that there is no better performer than Narendra Modi in India’s political structure. 

Three weeks ago, I had gone to Ahmedabad to address the YPO and I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up with Modi. 

I called him the evening before and I was given an appointment for the very day I was getting into Ahmedabad. 

And it was not some official meeting but instead one at his house. As frugal as the man Modi is.  And this is something that the Gandhis and Mayawatis need to learn from Modi. 

There were no fawning staff members; no secretaries running around; no hangers on…just the two of us with one servant who was there serving tea. 

And what was most impressive was the passion which Modi exuded. The passion for development; the passion for an invigorated Gujarat; the passion for the uplifting the living standards of the people in his state and the joy with which he recounted simple yet memorable data-points. 

For instance, almost all of the milk consumed in Singapore is supplied by Gujarat; or for that matter all the tomatoes that are eaten in Afghanistan are produced in Gujarat or the potatoes that Canadians gorge on are all farmed in Gujarat. 

But it was industry that was equally close to his heart.  It was almost like a child, that he rushed and got a coffee table book on GIFT: the proposed Gujarat Industrial City that will come up on the banks of the Sabarmarti: something that will put the Dubais and the Hong Kongs of this world to shame. 

And while on the Sabarmati, it is Modi who has created the inter-linking of rivers so that now the Sabarmati is no longer dry.  

He then spoke about how he was very keen that Ratan Tata sets up the Nano plant in Gujarat: he told me how he had related the story of the Parsi Navsari priests to Ratan and how touched Ratan was: the story is, when the Navsari priests, (the first Parsis) landed in Gujarat, the ruler of Gujarat sent them a glass of milk, full to the brim and said, there was no place for them: the priests added some sugar to the milk and sent it back saying that they would integrate beautifully with the locals and would only add value to the state.  

Narendra Modi is clearly a man in a hurry and he has every reason to be. There is no question in any one’s mind that he is the trump card for the BJP after Advani and Modi realises that. People like Rajnath Singh are simply weak irritants I would imagine. 

He also believes that the country has no apolitical strategy to counter terrorism and in fact he told me how he had alerted the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the NSA about the impending bomb blasts in Delhi and they did not take him seriously. And then the September 13 blasts happened! 

It was this resolve of Modi’s that I found very admirable. There is a clear intolerance of terrorism and terrorists which is evident in the way the man functions; now there are many cynics who call it minority-bashing but the truth of the matter is that Modi genuinely means business as far as law and order is concerned.  

I left Modi’s house deeply impressed with the man as Chief Minister: he was clearly passionate and what’s more deeply committed. When I sat in the car, I asked my driver what he thought of Modi and his simple reply was Modi is God. 

Before him, there was nothing. No roads, no power, no infrastructure. Today, Gujarat is a power surplus state. 

Today, Gujarat attracts more industry than all the states put together. Today, Gujarat is the preferred investment destination for almost every multi-national and what’s more, there is an integrity that is missing in other states.  

After I finished talking to the YPO (Young President’s Organisation) members, I asked some of them very casually, what they thought of Modi. Strangely, this was one area there was no class differential on. They too said he was God.  

But what they also added very quickly was if India has just five Narendra Modis, we would be a great country. 

I don’t know if this was typical Gujarati exaggeration or a reflection of the kind of leadership India now needs! There is however, no question in my mind, that his flaws apart, Narendra Modi today, is truly a transformational leader! And we need many more like him!  

The writer is Managing Partner,of councilage

Kaffiyeh and the Kafir by Kanchan Gupta

Kaffiyeh and the Kafir by Kanchan Gupta 

Kanchan Gupta / Friday, September 26, 2008

courtesy: http://www.dailypioneer.com/7436/Kaffiyeh-and-the-kafir.html

The chequered Arab headgear, the kaffiyeh, has come to symbolise a certain fanaticism; it is a badge of radical Islamism that is worn by many Muslims in India to declare their affiliation to an ideology that is founded on the principles of hate and which demands intolerance of the kafir

Friends, you must have seen these images (published in newspapers) which show three Muslim boys arrested in Delhi as 'terrorists' wearing the Arab headgear usually called Arab rumal..." This is an excerpt from an e-mail circulated earlier this week by Muslims outraged by visuals of three of their co-religionists, arrested after the September 19 raid on Jamia Nagar and suspected of being members of the terrorist organisation, Indian Mujahideen, being produced in court by Delhi Police. The outrage is over the claimed 'stereotyping' of Muslims as well as identifying what has been referred to in the e-mail as the 'Arab scarf' or 'Arab rumal' with Islamic fanaticism and jihadi terrorism.

The 'Arab scarf' or 'Arab rumal' is the kaffiyeh which has three variants. The white kaffiyeh, with tassels that designate the social status of an individual, is worn by sheikhs with claims to nobility and is part of the dress code that sets the Arab palace apart from the Arab street. Colonel TE Lawrence, better known as 'Lawrence of Arabia', wore one, keeping in mind his exalted status. Rudolph Valentino made a fashion statement of sorts by wearing the white kaffiyeh in the 1921 silent film, The Sheik as part of his costume. Both Lawrence and Valentino contributed to the stereotyping of the Arab sheikh who would otherwise not be seen wearing a kaffiyeh in Monaco, Cote de Azure or the sleazy nightclubs of Phuket. But this version of the kaffiyeh need not distract us.

What is of interest are the black-and-white and red-and-white chequered variants of the kaffiyeh. The first gained global prominence when Palestinian terrorists adopted it as a statement of their faith, initially in Palestinian nationalism and later in radical Islamism. Contrary to popular belief, it was not Yasser Arafat who made the once humble peasant and Bedouin headgear, meant to keep the scorching desert sun out, into a badge of Palestinian identity. That honour must go to Leila Khaled, a leading light of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who was among the hijackers of TWA Flight 840. The flight from Rome to Athens was diverted to Damascus where it was blown up in a spectacular display of Palestinian fury. That was in August 1969. Leila Khaled tried to hijack an El Al flight from Amsterdam to New York on September 6, 1970, but was overpowered and captured by Israeli skymarshals.

Between the hijacking of the TWA flight and her failed attempt to hijack an El Al flight, Leila Khaled became an icon of the Palestinian movement which by then had begun to embrace terrorism to further its agenda. The celebrated black-and-white photograph of Leila Khaled the Palestinian terrorist, which became the leitmotif of PFLP posters and Arab propaganda, reproduced here, shows her wearing a black-and-white chequered kaffiyeh and holding an assault rifle, a 1960s version of the Kalashnikov. Her demure appearance is as deceptive as the Orkut profiles of the Indian Mujahideen cadre -- between the perception and the reality lurks the mind of a terrorist who can slaughter innocent people without batting an eyelid. Little or no purpose is served by pondering over appearances and educational qualifications -- Mohammed Atta was a brilliant student of architecture at Cairo University and was rated highly by his teachers at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg -- or sympathising with parents who are unable to accept the bitter truth about their children having grown up into pitiless monsters.

But let us return to the black-and-white chequered kaffiyeh. Arafat, taking a cue from Leila Khaled, was quick to realise the potential of the kaffiyeh as a visible, photogenic statement of Palestinian aspirations. After the first intifada inspired by his belligerence and the second intifada fuelled by the deadly cocktail of anti-semitism and Islamic fanaticism that forms the core of the ideology of hate preached by Hamas, the black-and-white chequered kaffiyeh evolved into an abiding symbol of 'Palestinian Islamism'. There is nothing innocent or demure about those who flaunt it -- it is an aggressive, often terrifying, assertion of militant Islam; for good measure, the Al Aqsa mosque has been incorporated into the chequered design of the kaffiyeh as a declaration of the final objective of those who wear it. Arafat's stylish arrangement of the kaffiyeh so as to form a triangle symbolising the Palestinian state as perceieved by Fatah, now exists only in fading memories of the man who gave political legitimacy to Islamic terrorism.

Which brings us to the third variant of the kaffiyeh -- the red-and-white chequered version which is referred to as an "Arab rumal" by Muslims in India. Like the burqa -- referred to as the "Arab purdah" -- it has been popularised by the Tablighi Jamaat and adopted by many of India's Muslims, especially the clergy, to announce their religious identity and their allegiance to Wahaabi Islam. In Saudi Arabia, minor clerics and the muttaween, the religious police or members of the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, who patrol the streets to crudely enforce shari'ah, wear the read-and-white chequered kaffiyeh, as do commoners.

But those in India who have adopted this variant of the kaffiyeh -- you will find many of them in Muslim ghettos like Jamia Nagar and the area around Jama Masjid, as also in places as far apart as Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh and Malappuram in Kerala -- are not inspired by the Arab street. They identify it with Islam and the Arab origin of their faith. For them the kaffiyeh is a bridge that transports them from the reality in which they exist -- as a minority community of believers among the kafirs of Hindu majority India -- to that which they aspire for: An Islamic state, a Nizam-e-Mustafa, where shari'ah shall rule supreme.

The kaffiyeh in India is a physical manifestation of the ongoing silent transformation of the country's Muslims. We do not get to see the changes that are taking place in their personal lives, the fanaticism that is rapidly replacing faith, the social codes that are being introduced to bring India's Muslim society in conformity with that which is held up by mullahs and maulvis as 'desirable' and 'sanctioned' by Islam, the precedence given to the Muslim ummah over the secular Indian nation. We occasionally get to read about an Imrana and a Gudiya, but such stories do not reflect the churning that is taking place, the rapidly increasing number of educated Muslims who, instead of logically pursuing the good life ensured by good jobs assured by their professional qualifications, are eager to throw it all away to serve what they are told, and convinced, is the 'cause' of Islam. For evidence, look at the profiles of the young men who have been arrested so far for their role in the horrific bombings in Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi, and probably also the earlier terror attacks in Mumbai and Hyderabad.

There are two possible responses to this reality. Like most Muslims, we can slip into denial mode and refuse to acknowledge the harsh truth. We can lash out at Delhi Police for draping the faces of suspected terrorists with red-and-white chequered kaffiyeh and denounce the 'stereotyping' of Muslims. There are those who will discover merit in the demand that there should be no police raids on Muslim ghettos without consulting the community and taking it into confidence. They would also subscribe to the view that a commission should be set up to prove that the terrorists who bomb India's cities are "not Muslims" -- in other words, an inquiry with a predetermined finding!

Or we could confront the truth and work towards halting the spread of radical Islamism and preventing an entire community from lurching towards fanaticism and embracing the sordid symbols of Wahaabi intolerance, for example the kaffiyeh or the "Arab rumal", which has fetched nothing but grief wherever it has been allowed to flourish. This is a task that cannot be left to compromised individuals like the Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia who, to prove his credentials with the extremists, has offered to siphon public funds to defend those accused of terrorism. The state must step in with its full might, and uphold the secular principles of our republic where the kaffiyeh and all that it symbolises clashes violently with the idea of India.

Remote madrassas in Pakistan- A monstrous experiment by Nasir Abbas Mirza

Monday, May 11, 2009

Remote madrassas in Pakistan- A monstrous experiment by Nasir Abbas Mirza 

The writer is a freelance columnist

(Courtesy: Daily Times, Pakistan, May 11.)

Remote madrassas in Pakistan may be turning boys into drones but then there are thousands of madrassas spread all over Pakistan’s urban centres that are producing millions of neo-drones who may not become suicide bombers but are totally unfit to live in this world. These kids need to be rescued

Take a little boy and incarcerate him in a remote madrassa. Keep him far away from the rest of the world and bar any interaction with humanity. Indoctrinate him with a distorted version of a religion and tell him that he does not belong to this world. Teach him about the fanciful world that awaits him in the heaven, and that in order to attain that he has to destroy everything that stands in his way, including his own body.

By the time he is sixteen, the child would have become a drone: an un-manned man. Instead of a lively teenager, we would have a robot in living tissue ready to detonate on remote orders.

At full steam ahead in Pakistan, this is a monstrous experiment in brainwashing and it is on a par with, if not worse than, Nazi Germany’s eugenics. They did it in the name of science; here, it is being done in the name of God and religion. On a very large scale, this is a hugely successful experiment in which nurture triumphs and nature takes a beating.

Are we really prisoners of our genes? Or are we prisoners of our parents, teachers and societies? From what we are witnessing, genetic influences are secondary to environment.

Behavioural scientists have Nobel Prize-winning research material in Pakistan. Freud, Skinner or Pavlov would have worked nights to study this. Pavlov’s dogs salivated at the sound of a bell; this young man would blow himself up at the sound of a bell — his phone bell. “Give me a child until he is seven, and I will show you the man,” goes the old Jesuit saying. 

It may be sinister, the Jesuit saying, but the fact remains that nobody understands the vulnerability of a child’s brain better than priests. On the one hand, witness the vigilance of parents when they let a maulvi sahib into their house to teach the Holy Quran to their children; and, on the other hand, there are parents in the same society who ‘give’ a child to madrassa-running priests not until he is seven, but until he is 14 or 15 or forever. 

‘Give’ is a generalisation. Given our attitudes towards birth control, an overabundance of young children is a natural outcome. In population growth, we are not too far behind the 6 percent population growth rate of our role model country, Saudi Arabia. There is an endless supply of young boys for madrassas. There are abducted, orphaned or abandoned young boys. Then there are parents who are too poor to bring up a child. They simply sell or donate their boys for tabligh or jihad or for any other religious duty. The religious pretence converts their dastardly act into a noble deed.

Priestly abuse of children has been going on for as long as there have been priests and children. But never has this been done in such an organised manner as is the case here in Pakistan. This abuse (aside from the pervasive sexual abuse) spells disaster. Just step out of a large city and all you would see around you are hundreds and thousands of little children — from six to thirty-six months old. Until these kids are of an age to observe the ways of their elders, they live and behave like untrained dogs. That’s the real Pakistan and no military or political leader is having sleepless nights over this.

Mismanaging the national security state has kept our governments so busy that social uplift has been low on their priorities. For sixty years we gave all our money for security and today we don’t even have that. Even in a perfect world, our leaders couldn’t have done anything about it. The job at hand is beyond their capabilities. Just take a roll call of our leaders in the last thirty years. They have been such a simple and basic lot that protocol and property left them no time for anything else. 

Will this ever change or improve. No, not for another thirty years. That’s thirty years after we do the needful: that is, a drastic reduction in the number of children we produce, modern education for all on war-footing basis and to do this, schools and First World-standard teachers. So start counting once all this is in place. 

From Zia to Zardari, and all others in between, no one even acknowledged that we have an overpopulation problem. Such is the fear of backlash from religious conservatives. 

Here’s the equation: a population that breeds likes rats equals poverty equals despair equals cannon fodder for religious organisations and terrorist networks. Were these children better off working at motor workshops or making carpets? Perhaps the ILO or an NGO can answer this question. They seem awfully quiet on something much worse than child labour.

There’s a reason for that: in matters of faith or religious beliefs, no one dare object. All kinds of evil, illegal or inhuman practices can be given sanction if a particular religion or sect proves that it is part of its belief. You could be dying in a hospital but no one would give you a hallucinogenic drug to save your life. But, hey, you can get official approval for the use of cannabis or other hallucinogenic drugs if you prove that use of these substances is part of your religious belief. In 2006, the US Supreme Court did just that. 

Our children face a frightening future not because of the Taliban (they are just a handful) but because of the ultra-conservative wave of religion that has swept this country. Remote madrassas may be turning boys into drones but then there are thousands of madrassas spread all over Pakistan’s urban centres that are producing millions of neo-drones who may not become suicide bombers but are totally unfit to live in this world. These kids need to be rescued. 

Alfred Hitchcock, the great movie director who specialised in frightening people, was once driving in Switzerland when he suddenly pointed out of the car window and said, “That is the most frightening sight I have ever seen.” It was a priest in conversation with a little boy, his hand on the boy’s shoulder.

Hitchcock leaned out of the car window and shouted, “Run, little boy! Run for your life!”

The writer is a freelance columnist

(Courtesy: Daily Times, Pakistan, May 11.)

More Facts About Feisal Abdul Rauf of the "Ground Zero Mosque"

More Facts About Feisal Abdul Rauf of the "Ground Zero Mosque"

As the debate over the Ground Zero "Islamic cultural center" rages, ameliorative press coverage of its "spiritual" promoter, Feisal Abdul Rauf, continues to emphasize his alleged benevolence, while more dismaying facts about him also emerge. The Islamic environment in which he has circulated for many years has included nurturing by fanatical Jew-haters like the former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, with whom Rauf continues to cooperate in the so-called Perdana Global Peace Organization, a significant contributor to the sea raid by Turkish-led radicals on the Israeli blockade at Gaza, at the end of May this year. This parallels Rauf's involvements with functionaries of and propaganda for the Iranian clerical dictatorship.

The Abdul Rauf family has long benefited from the support of Mahathir. Most Americans today may never have heard of Mahathir, and many Jews may have forgotten him – he last held power in Malaysia in 2003. But his venomous Jew-baiting has not diminished. Indonesia's Jakarta Globe reported, on January 21, 2010, Mahathir's view that "there was 'strong evidence' the U.S. faked the September 11 terror attacks as an excuse to go to war against Muslims." He said, "There is strong evidence that the attacks were staged. If they can make Avatar, they can make anything." He continued by opining that Jews "had always been a problem in European countries. They had to be confined to ghettoes and periodically massacred. But still they remained, they thrived and they held whole governments to ransom… Even after their massacre by the Nazis of Germany, they survived to continue to be a source of even greater problems for the world."

Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust of the Jews but Malaysian politician and ideologue Mahathir celebrates it. And Mahathir remains the patron of Feisal Abdul Rauf and the latter's works.

A profile of Feisal Abdul Rauf and his antecedents in The New York Times Saturday (August 21, 2010) described his father, Imam Muhammad Abdul Rauf, as a "pioneer of interfaith dialogue" when the parent was associated with foundation of the East 96th Street Islamic Cultural Center in New York City in the 1960s. But it also notes that the father asked his wife not to drive an automobile, an extremely primitive attitude assumed only by the most reactionary Saudi Wahhabis and similar radicals. The Times further omitted mention of the anti-Jewish outbursts heard at the 96th Street mosque in the wake of the 9/11 atrocities, when its later imam, Mohammed Gamei'a, told an Egyptian website "The Jews were behind these ugly acts, while we, the Arabs, were innocent. . . . If it became known to the American people, they would have done to the Jews what Hitler did!" Gamei'a then departed for Egypt, but his successor, Imam Abu-Namous, declared that "he considered the evidence against Osama bin Laden insufficient, and said he could 'not rule out' any possible perpetrators, whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish."

The 96th Street mosque was financed and controlled by Muslim diplomats at the United Nations, and in 1979, when the Shah fell in Iran, Muhammad Abdul Rauf, Feisal's father moved to another mosque built by diplomats, the opulent Islamic Center on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington. The Massachusetts Avenue mosque had been directed by Iran's then-ambassador, Ardeshir Zahedi. Just as administration of the Massachusetts Avenue mosque was taken over by Muhammad Abdul Rauf, the congregation came under the domination of Khomeinists. 

The New York Times yesterday claimed that earlier, in 1977, Muhammad Abdul Rauf was serving in the Washington mosque when he was kidnapped by Islamist gunman, but that his wife tongue-lashed the aggressors into retreat. It failed to note the much more interesting fact that while Muhammad Abdul Rauf headed the Massachusetts Avenue mosque the facility was used by the supporters of the Teheran clerical regime to plan the first Islamist political assassination on American soil. That crime was the murder of Iranian dissident Ali Akbar Tabatabai at his home in Bethesda, on July 22, 1980. The killer, David Belfield, who had embraced Islam and taken the names Hassan Abdul Rahman and Dawud Salahuddin, fled to Iran where he is believed to have became a movie actor, appearing in the 2001 Iranian feature film Kandahar.

Imam Muhammad Abdul Rauf soon left the Massachusetts Avenue mosque, with no suspicion that he knew of the Tabatabai murder plot, and went back to Malaysia, where he had previously lived. There Muhammad Abdul Rauf was presented by Mahathir with the rectorship of the International Islamic University of Malaysia. Feisal Abdul Rauf was also not implicated in the Tabatabai crime. Nevertheless, the use of the Washington mosque for coordination of the Tabatabai assassination was an early warning, largely ignored, of the ideologically-toxic environment in many leading American mosques, including those built by diplomats. 

Islamic authorities agree that as the imam of the Massachusetts Avenue mosque Muhammad Abdul Rauf should have paid closer attention to the extremist clique that had come to dominate his jamaat, or congregation, and that carried out the Tabatabai murder. And in the time since then, as reported here, the Massachusetts Avenue Islamic Center has undergone legal turmoil, with a firm commitment to Saudi Wahhabi radicalism, and a Saudi-engineered court case against one of its former and anti-extremist employees, Farzad Darui, has just been dropped by the Department of Justice.

Feisal Abdul Rauf has projected himself as a bridge-builder between Muslims and non-Muslims but his background and persona fit more with that of one bent on accumulating friends on all sides, and accommodating all aspects of Islam today, without a necessary distinction being drawn between real moderates and radicals. Yet he has more critics than friends among Muslims. As a Sufi, or spiritual Muslim, he is increasingly described as "New Agey" – an insult to mystics in Muslim countries who expect a Sufi to be a serious religious scholar rather than a seeker after crowds. Feisal Abdul Rauf's ego is large. 

One of his nonprofits was launched as the American Sufi Muslim Association (ASMA), but in 2005 changed its name, but not its acronym, to the more ambitious and expansive American Society for Muslim Advancement. In the property office run by Sharif El-Gamal, developer of the "Cordoba House" turned "Park51" project, Rauf's ego has been so aggravated as to make El-Gamal consider dumping him.

Commonsense should have told the "Ground Zero" project's backers that the concept would provoke conflict, rather than conciliation. But Rauf's ego and El-Gamal's enabling of it have landed them, and the opponents of the mosque, in an increasingly unproductive conflict that never should have taken place.